Field of the Invention
This invention relates to electric camcorders, in general, and to those employing protective cases for air, land and underwater use, in particular.
Description of the Related Art
As has been described, if people wanted footage of themselves engaged in physical activities, until fairly recently, they needed another person to hold and operate an electronic camera for them. Furthermore, the camera operator needed to be skilled in order to obtain compelling content. Additionally, capturing high-quality content often required expensive, fragile and cumbersome camera equipment that was not accessible to everyone. Accordingly, it was not often practical for people to document their experiences during their lives' most enjoyable moments.
In order to accommodate photography during such physical activities as skating, skiing, hiking, biking, mountain climbing and sky-diving, for example, camera manufacturers have recently come to develop, manufacture and market high-definition digital video electronic camera/camcorders, often used in these action video photographic instances. Compact, lightweight, rugged and simple to operate, camera/camcorders of this sort have been made available to capture still photos or video through a wide-angle lens, with accessories to mount to a helmet, to a bumper or to a windshield of a vehicle. Various wearable or mountable manners have also been developed to facilitate self-capture experiences different from those previously attainable with traditional cameras and smartphones.
Recognizing that the use of these camera/camcorders would also offer unique photographic perspectives in such activities as surfing, snorkeling, spear fishing, kayaking, white water rafting, and scuba-diving, protective cases claiming a waterproof capability have been proposed to enclose these video systems for use in such environmental activities—or even just for wet-weather photographing in general.
As will be appreciated, such digital video electronic camera/camcorders, whether designed for air and land use—and for underwater use in accordance with further developments—are not inexpensive. Costing several hundreds of dollars, and even more, their availability to wide sectors of the populous becomes increasingly limited as the sophistication of the digital systems become greater. But, as it has been recognized that shoes are rentable at bowling alleys, that skates are rentable at ice and roller rinks, that skis and boots are rentable at the slopes and that clubs are rentable at golf course pro shops, so too it is hoped that these protective waterproof cases and digital video electronic camera/camcorders will also become available for daily and weekly rentals—and not only for air and land use as in skating, skiing, hiking, biking, mountain climbing and sky-diving, but also in such wet-weather and underwater activities as surfing, snorkeling, spear fishing, kayaking, white water rafting, scuba diving and ski jumping.